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String of four beads, which are the remains of a childhood necklace from southern Sudan owned Nyabana Riek. It one of the few possessions she retained during her nine year journey from Sudan to Melbourne. Nyabana Riek was born in 1977 in southern Sudan. In 1986 when she was only nine years old, she was sent with her older sister Mary to Ethiopia to escape the war. After seven years of living in refugee camps, Nyabana and Mary made the trek from Ethiopia to Kenya. It took three painfully slow years for Australian officials to process their visa applications. Finally, nine years after she began her journey Nyabana arrived in Australia.

Between 1997 and 2007 more than 20,000 settlers born in Sudan immigrated to Australia. During this period there were also approximately 2, 200 ethnic Sudanese, born to Sudanese parents in refugee camps in Egypt or Kenya, who also immigrated to Australia.